15th December 2016
It’s not very easy to top the confirmation of Seminole Golf Club as your 2021 Walker Cup venue but the United States Golf Association (USGA) managed to do it today.
Probably fearing the news would break elsewhere soon, as it did with Seminole in 2013, the USGA saw fit to also announce the Cypress Point Club as it’s 2025 host course.
Seminole Golf Club (© USGA / Fred Vuich) and Cypress Point Club (© USGA / Martin Miller)
Whilst Florida is normally great for golf all year round the risk of Autumn storms, and possibly worse, has led the USGA to move the 2021 match to 8th – 9th May.
As a result of the above 2021 will be the first time the match will be played in the Spring in the USA. Traditionally every USA home match has been played in late August or September.
The Walker Cup was always held in May in Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I) up until Portmarnock Golf Club hosted the 1991 match when it moved to the September berth we are now familiar with.
The 8th – 9th May will be the earliest date in the calendar the match has ever been played in it’s entire history.
Selection for the 2021 GB&I team will be more challenging than normal for The R&A given that very few major events will have been contested by that time in our season. From a US perspective some changes may also need to be made to that year’s NCAA Championship schedule which normally concludes in May.
The 50th Walker Cup match in 2025 will be played on the Monterey Peninsula, back in it’s September slot, at the Cypress Point Club in California.
This will be the second time Cypress Point has staged the Walker Cup match with the USA winning the previous encounter 15-9 in 1981.
Both courses opened in 1929 and to this day remain amongst the most private in the world as you can clearly see from the photos below.
Members Only
Nevertheless the opportunity to explore first hand both Seminole, designed by Donald Ross, and Cypress Point, with it’s strong Alister MacKenzie connections, will be a treat that many golf supporters will want to take up in the years ahead.
For more information on this topic take a look at my website page – Future Venues.
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